Donald Trump has refused to condemn Russia's military takeover of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, saying if elected he would consider recognizing it as Russian territory, in the latest of a series of statements that have raised eyebrows about the Republican candidate's intentions toward the Kremlin.

Accepting Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea would be a radical departure from U.S. policy. The United States and the European Union worked together to punish Russia by imposing economic sanctions and have shown no willingness to lift them. Even Belarus, Russia's closest ally and neighbor, did not recognize the annexation.

While Trump has sided with Putin on a wide range of issues, Putin has not openly backed the Republican nominee and the Kremlin denies interfering in the U.S. electoral process. Hillary Clinton's campaign claimed that Russia was behind the hacking of Democratic National Committee computers as part of an effort to undermine her candidacy.

Although the Russians "will keep their mouths tightly zipped until Election Day," they clearly prefer Trump, said Wayne Merry, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and former diplomat who spent six years at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.

"They don't know exactly what to expect from Donald Trump, but they think two things about him: One, that he has a number of advisers who they see as being relatively open-minded if not sympathetic about Russia. And second, they see him as a deal maker," Merry said.

"When they look at Hillary Clinton they see somebody they really do not like."

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Mareike Aden is a German journalist and former freelance reporter on Ukraine and Crimea. At the press conference where Trump called on Russia to find Hillary's missing emails she asked Trump if he were President would he consider lifting sanctions on Russian and recognize Crimea as being Russian territory.

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